Loving From A Distance
by elenamindollin
Summary: Chad's thoughts after Operation: Split Troyella in the movie. Onesided Chella. Troyella.


**Hello all! I'm dabbling in this fandom for a little while. If you like my writing, let me know in a review... I might hang out in this fandom for more than just one story! I have several other stories, so if you want, go ahead and check them out. **

**Disclaimer: ****of course I don't own HSM, if you really need this disclaimer to let you know that, you have some issues, but when in Rome... **

**Just so you all know: This WAS four chapters long, so if you've read this before, don't worry. Nothing got lost in the consolidation process; it's just all in one chapter now. Enjoy!**

* * *

_As the dusty light of an Albuquerque dawn filtered through the window, it fell on the restlessly pacing shape of Chad Danforth. It was the morning after he and Taylor McKessie had successfully pulled off their plan to split Troy and Gabriella, and he was agitated, prowling from one end of his room to the other like a caged mountain lion._

_Suddenly he groaned and sank down onto the edge of his bed, burying his face in his hands. "It's not fair," he growled at his floor. Try as he might, he couldn't get her face out of his head. He thought he'd be happy, now that Troy wasn't going to sing in that stupid "Twinkle Town" musical anymore. Balance and normalcy would be restored to the students of East High. He'd even planned to combat the guilt of hurting his best friend by rationalizing that it was the best thing for everyone. But he totally hadn't expected to feel like_ dirt

* * *

Chad, Zeke and Jason peered around the corner, observing the brutal exchange between Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez that resulted from their cleverly planned sabotage. Taylor McKessie had planned the operation with flawless precision, and Chad found himself more than a little impressed with her genius. As Gabriella held out the sheet music for Troy to take and shut her locker, Chad high-fived his friends and shrank back into the shadows while Zeke and Jason melted into the milling crowd in the hallway. Gabriella wrapped her arms around her books and proceeded to weave her way through the crowd, disappearing from Chad's vision. As his best friend turned slowly away from Gabriella's locker and walked slowly down the hall, Chad quickly ducked out of his hiding spot and attempted to catch up with Troy. 

Preoccupied as he was with his best friend, he ran smack into someone and felt a slender hand suddenly grasp his upper arm to stay balanced. In surprise he pulled his eyes away from Troy's retreating back and stared directly into the face of Gabriella Montez.

"Montez…?" he murmured uncomprehendingly.

He put his hands on her shoulders, intending to move her out of his way – Troy was almost out of sight and he had no idea where his friend was going – but he froze when he glanced at her face again and saw the tears rolling down her cheeks. He blinked. This wasn't exactly the outcome he and Taylor had expected. Sure, they'd intended to make Gabriella mad so that she would refuse to sing with Troy. But make her cry? That was going a little too far, even for him.

Surprised as he was by her tears, he was totally unprepared for the surge of protectiveness that roared through him. He was suddenly painfully aware that she was practically in his arms. And to his surprise, he enjoyed the feeling.

Gabriella blinked up at him through her tears. "Chad…" she said at last, dredging up his name from their first introduction.

"Are you okay?" he asked, feeling sharply guilty for what he, Taylor, Zeke, Jason, and the rest of the team had just done. Of course she wasn't okay – the tears rolling down her face were testament enough to that.

She nodded half-heartedly, wiping a stray tear away with the back of her hand. Chad resisted the urge to do it for her. "I'm okay," she replied in a voice that said she was anything but okay. "Thank you."

That caught him off-guard. He'd done nothing for her that she should be thankful for. Then he realized she was thanking him for catching her. He put on his typical, cocky air. "No problem." Refusing to look at her any longer, he focused on the direction Troy had gone and moved past her.

* * *

When he finally slipped into class, he found Troy already seated – an abnormality in and of itself – and steadfastly ignoring all of his friends as they tried to engage him in conversation. As for Chad, he only managed to slap his best friend's shoulder before sitting down and resting his chin in his hand, his mind swirling with a tumult of emotion. It disturbed him that he'd been so susceptible to the charms of one of those insanely, ridiculously smart people. He'd spent his whole life trying to avoid the nerds, only to be turned into a blithering idiot the first time he actually got close to one of them. He, Chad Danforth, was supposed to be much cooler than that. 

"Mr. Danforth."

But, he thought he could kind of see why Troy liked her. She was pretty, no doubt about that, and those big brown eyes just sort of sucked you in. _If only she was a cheerleader…_Chad found himself wishing absently.

"Mr. DANFORTH!"

Chad jerked out of his stupor to find the whole class, and Troy, staring at him. He'd allowed his mind to wander farther than it usually did. Normally he just zoned out in class, but today he'd been on an entirely different planet.

"Good," their chemistry teacher, Mr. Falstaff, said in a quieter voice. "Now that you've returned to the land of the living, Chad, can I risk asking you to show us how a calorimeter works?"

"You could, Mr. Falstaff," he replied, forcing himself to adopt his usual playful tone, "but I don't think it'll pay off."

Mr. Falstaff only raised an eyebrow in amusement. "No, I didn't think it would. Do you know what it does?"

"Was that a question on today's homework?" came Chad quick reply.

"Yes."

"Then no, I don't know what it does."

A few of his classmates chuckled. Chad grinned inwardly. _Chad Danforth is back on form…_

Mr. Falstaff chuckled along with his class. Unlike most of the other teachers, Mr. Falstaff actually got along rather well with the lazy basketball star – it helped considerably that he was at least fifteen years younger than the other teachers and much closer to his students' age. "I suppose it's too much to hope that you might have _actually _gotten your homework done on time?"

"Yeah, when pigs fly," Zeke remarked dryly. Chad only grinned.

"Very well. I won't stop hoping. And I trust you'll maintain your infamous C- average," Mr. Falstaff said, eyeing Chad seriously.

"Of course." It was the Chad Trademark: one day behind on homework and doing just enough to stay on the team.

Mr. Falstaff turned away from Chad and addressed the class at large, "Can anyone else show me how to solve a calorimetry problem?"

Predictably, Taylor McKessie's hand shot into the air. Chad smirked. That girl was taking _three_ science classes and somehow managed to keep up in all of them. Knowing that Mr. Falstaff would leave him alone for the rest of the class, he leaned back in his chair and allowed himself to zone out until the final bell.

* * *

The next day, Chad and Taylor were able to measure the full success of their operation. To Chad's dismay, however, things were not working out as well as he wanted. Troy hardly spoke a word the whole morning and paid little or no attention to anyone else on the team during their free period workout. Gabriella looked glassy-eyed when she passed Chad on her way to her seat in their government class, and she shied away from Troy when he tried to approach her in the hallway. 

Almost constantly, Chad felt Taylor's presence at his side as she tried to weasel his opinion out of him about their sabotage. He managed to give her half-hearted answers, which only satisfied her temporarily. In a few short minutes, she would be back at his side, wondering anxiously if they were doing the right thing.

Unfortunately, she was asking the wrong guy. Chad's emotions had – almost overnight – wound themselves dangerously tight around the issue. A devious little plot had hatched in his mind around midmorning and he'd been fighting it all through his own workout. He couldn't believe how much Gabriella suddenly meant to him. And now that she and Troy weren't talking, a small window of opportunity had opened up for him. Guy breaks girl's heart, guy's friend offers the hand of compassion, which eventually leads to something more.

Frustrated, Chad threw his basketball a little harder than he'd intended, catching Jason in the stomach. What was he thinking?! _Betray_ his best friend? Troy would never forgive him if he started dating Gabriella now. Or ever. Troy had it bad for this brainy new girl, and Chad could not possibly envision _any_ time when dating Gabriella would not cost him Troy's friendship.

"Hey man," Jason grunted, tossing the ball back, "take it easy, okay?"

Chad caught the ball and stared at it. _Is this what Troy's going through?_ he wondered.

* * *

"Oh hey…" Taylor's voice caused Chad to look up from his lunch tray. He glanced at her and followed her gaze; Troy and Gabriella stood less than two feet apart in the middle of the cafeteria. Unconsciously, Chad found himself measuring Gabriella's reaction to see if she still cared about Troy. The look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know: she was still madly in love with his best friend. He felt an unfamiliar ache in his chest, threatening to destroy his resolve to remain loyal to Troy. There was a moment, a precious fraction of a second where Gabriella passed near enough to him that he could smell the coconut tang of her body spray. He could have reached out to her right there and pulled her into his arms, keeping her there forever. But he resolutely stared down at his tray and let the moment pass. When he next looked up, she had seated herself alone at a table and pushed her untouched meal away. 

"Troy!" he called, waving to get his friend's attention. Troy only glanced at him and looked away, shaking his head slightly before slowly climbing the stairs out of the cafeteria. The hurt in that glance solidified Chad's determination to fix what he'd destroyed. He met Taylor's eyes and wordlessly, they rose and walked together out of the cafeteria.

As soon as they were alone, Taylor spun to face him. "We have to do something, Chad! This is so much worse than we planned."

He stood for a long moment, arms crossed, staring at the ground. Finally he sighed. "Zeke, Jason and I will talk to Troy. You go find Gabriella."

* * *

ONE HOUR LATER 

"Chad, it didn't work!" Taylor cried as soon as he slipped into the empty classroom they'd selected for their rendezvous.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Gabriella! She won't listen to us! We can't change her mind about Troy!"

He felt the barest glimmer of hope, but quashed it firmly. "I'll talk to her."

* * *

Chad leaned against the wall and checked his watch as he waited outside the door of Gabriella's last class. He'd convince her to make up with Troy if it killed him. The bell rang and Chad straightened. The second Gabriella emerged from the classroom, he snatched her hand and pulled her into an empty hallway. 

"Chad! What–" she squeaked before he clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Shh!" he hissed.

Frightened, she nodded and stared at him with wide eyes. Chad fought the urge to kiss her. "Listen," he said impatiently, "we tricked you. I got Troy to say those things so that you wouldn't want to sing with him. We sabotaged you."

"You didn't make Troy say the things he did," she retorted, blinking back tears and shading her eyes from his view with her hand.

_Okay, so this tactic isn't working…_ He changed direction. "Look, we're sorry for what we did. We were wrong to try and interfere and we want to hear you two sing in the auditions. It's not Troy's fault at all. He's as hurt as you are. Just talk to him, okay?"

"Forget it, Chad," she replied, her voice trembling as she fought to keep it steady, "You just want me to salve your star's wounded pride so he'll be in shape for your big game."

_Whew, this girl can draw some harsh conclusions,_ Chad thought. "Actually, I'm doing this because he's my best friend and I'd be a first-class jerk if I didn't try to patch things up. He needs you." His hands were shaking as he reached out and tipped her face up to look at him. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to Troy Bolton."

She pushed his hand away. "I'm sorry, I can't."

He shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. "It's not me you need to apologize to." He turned and walked away, comforted in the fact that he'd done his best.

* * *

It turned out that even though Chad's best wasn't good enough, Troy's was. The romantic devil had paid a late night visit to Gabriella's balcony and serenaded her by moonlight. Chad had actually laughed when Troy told him the next morning. Leave it to Troy to devise a method like that. However, when he saw the two of them walk into the school together, laughing and smiling, he found he had a hard time smiling. He'd done all he could to help his best friend and left nothing for himself. Gabriella didn't even know how he felt. And he couldn't bring himself to tell her. In the end, he just pasted on a smile and allowed himself to be jostled and nudged into their homeroom class. 

"Chad!" a voice hailed him as he walked down the hall alone, absently spinning his trusty basketball on one finger. He caught it smoothly and tucked it under his arm as he turned to see Gabriella chasing him down. Troy stood waiting against her locker, talking to Zeke. Gabriella ran up to him and went up on tiptoe to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you for trying so hard to make everything better," she told him, leaning back and hugging her books to her chest, "it made more difference than you'll ever know."

Chad hardly took in her words at all. All he could manage was to gaze into her entrancingly dark eyes. His stomach was making this funny swooping sensation and his cheek tingled pleasantly from the pressure of her lips. He was seconds from just leaning in and kissing her right there in the middle of the hallway – Troy and all – when she broke the silence.

"Well?" she prodded gently, "aren't you going to say anything?" She seemed to notice for the first time how intensely he was staring at her. "What is it?" she asked a little hesitantly.

Embarrassed to be caught staring, he shook himself out of his trance and brushed it off. "Nothing," he muttered, "Don't worry about it." Then he gestured down the hall. "Troy's waiting."

"I know." She smiled radiantly at him, which he returned half-heartedly, and hurried off to join Troy. Chad watched her go, his eyes lingering on her lustrous brown hair. With an inward sigh, he turned and went to find Taylor and tell her the good news.

* * *

_In the euphoria of winning the championship game, Chad found himself celebrating with everyone else. He screamed the chant he traditionally led at the top of his lungs, loving the enthusiastic response from the crowd. But when Gabriella ran up and threw her arms around Troy, he knew it would kill him to see them kiss. Maybe later he could reconcile himself to it, but not now. It was too soon. Still in mostly high spirits, he snatched the game ball from Jason's hands and bounded up to the couple. "Team voted you the game ball, Captain!" he crowed, shoving the ball into his best friend's chest._

"_Yeah thanks," Troy replied sarcastically, plainly annoyed at being interrupted – something Chad knew could be forgiven later._

_It worked, though, and Gabriella and Troy faded off into the crowd of East High students. Chad saw Taylor running up to congratulate the team and he noticed her eyes flick uncertainly in his direction. He suddenly felt a little guilty for thinking only about Gabriella. Taylor had become a pretty good friend in the last week, and he realized that if he had any kind of feelings for Troy's girl, he could still show them best by taking care of her best friend. In one fluid movement, he caught Taylor in mid-stride, feeling her arms wrap reflexively around his waist. "So, you're coming with me to the after-party, right?"_

_He watched her face blossom with surprise and delight. "Like on a date?" she asked in excitement._

_He put on his most charming smile. "Well, today must be your lucky day."_

_Taylor squealed in delight and ran over to Gabriella. "Chad just asked me out!" she cried and spun her best friend around in a circle._

_Chad couldn't help but laugh at Taylor's reaction – it made him feel considerably better to know that he'd just made her day – but his laughter died on his lips as Gabriella's gaze found his over Troy's shoulder. She smiled at him, her eyes warm and approving. _She probably thinks Taylor and I will become a couple,_ he realized, but he allowed himself to smile back. As she and Troy moved away, he stood, watching the spot where she'd been a moment before._

* * *

**Hey ya'll! Tell me what you think! I know it's a kind of unconventional pairing, but it intrigued me. Not to worry, I love Troyella, but there's so many of those out there and Chad seems to be more neglected in HSM romances than most of the other characters. Turned out a little more angsty than I originally planned, but I kind of like the effect. For those of you who want Chad and Gabi together... sorry -- in this fic anyway. I'm considering writing one where they do get together, but it's a little tricky since Troy and Gabriella's relationship is so well-established in the movie. Suppose I could always go the AU route... Thanks for the reviews though!**

**Elena**


End file.
